SUMMARY: The best way to learn about an alien species is not only to live among them, but to become them in both physical form and function, but could a human really learn to think like an alien, and at what cost to his humanity?

Journalist and adventurer Xavier William Lennox becomes obsessed with the rituals of the Fireflies, an alien culture of gold-skinned inhabitants living on the planet Medina. When he gets too close to their mysterious society, he’s captured, tortured, and banished for his curiosity, but vows to learn what it is that the aliens are so desperate to hide, even if it means becoming one of them.
But his curiosity doesn’t end with the Fireflies. As opportunities arise to study more alien races, Lennox undergoes a series of cosmetic surgeries so that he can blend in with their cultures. But each time his humanity is stretched until he faces his biggest challenge—trying to return to the ordinary life of a man who has experienced the universe in ways he was never meant to.

Great to see the Dog barking at the moon, expanding its lineup as its tenth year in the industry unfolds. Congrats to all.

***
Most of these don’t happen until Summer 2013, but I wanted to post these to remind folks who may be making travel plans, since many cons offer discounted rates to early birds. I’ll post updates as new signings and events are arranged.

I made this video to shout out my thanks for all who have been pledging to make The Fridge of the Damned a reality. As of this post, there are two weeks left to pledge and we’re 76% of the way toward funding the manufacturing of the magnet sets. But we want to see these come in collectible tins, and the only way to make that happen is with your support. Please pledge or spread the word by sharing this video or the link to our page on kickstarter.

The Goreletter Vol. 7, #1 was e-mailed to subscribers on 1/13/12 @ 11:59pm est. It contains extra entertainment/material not available here on the weblog version, including a haiku contest exclusive to subscribers with one-of-a-kind prizes.

If you subscribe and did not receive this issue, e-mail me for a replacement or review the archives at gorelets.com. If you need to check or update your subscription’s email address, just enter it in the subscribe box and review the report.

Subscribe today…it’s free and you can always unsubscribe if it terrorizes you too much. Issues are mailed only a few times per year, if even that, so your inbox won’t suffocate.

We see this press as more of a creative laboratory than some vain enterprise in self-publishing. It is a venue for trying new things and archiving things that may have otherwise been lost and forgotten. We’ve always been a small press interested in exploring new territory for genre fiction and poetry, liberated from the norms of mainstream publishing and unbound by the usual commercial demands.

We need your help. Kick in a few bucks and if our dreams become a reality, you can use these demented fridge magnets however you please… in fact, with a little creative play, they might “instigate” you to come up with poetry, stories, art or even novels all your own!

But even better: by funding the project at ANY level (even just a buck!), you’ll automatically reserve a free copy of Instigation: Creative Prompts on the Dark Side! This new ebook is NOT just a scraping together of all the “twisted prompts for sicko writers” you already find here at gorelets… it includes the entire collection from the infamous weekly column that ran in Hellnotes newsletter from many years ago, dozens and dozens of strange prompts from Michael Arnzen’s horror writing classes at Seton Hill University, and a battery of original material only available in this ebook: from new prompts “too hot for gorelets,” to activities intended specifically for writers in the muddlesome middle of their novels, to articles about writer’s block, advice for staying focused, and more. And all of it, intended to navigate you into the dark side, where the interesting stuff awaits. If you’re a writer, you’ll definitely want this.

Latest Publications

Press & Praise…

Arnzen does it again…he’s a master of horror, because he is willing to stare into that Nietzschian darkness and laugh at it when it looks back and then writes about how it scampered away in utter terror.— Will Prescott, Eldritch Power